IAA student Michael Perise plants inside a high tunnel for Terp Farm, the university's sustainable vegetable farm producing vegetables to be servded in campus dining halls.
Image Credit: Edwin Remsberg
In a program that has students clamoring to get their hands dirty, plus puts smiles on professor’s faces, there’s also the bonus of it possibly curbing the dreaded “freshman 15,” the added pounds students tend to gain from eating too much of the wrong foods.
Terp Farm, now in its second year of a three-year pilot program, is located on two acres of the approximately 200-acre Research and Education Center a little more than 10 miles from campus. The garden plot is used for classes as well as providing fresh ingredients for the school’s dining services.
“Today we had 380 pounds of produce brought to campus from the farm,” said an obviously happy Allison Lilly, sustainability and wellness coordinator for dining services. Tomatoes, Swiss chard and cabbage joined an impressive 50 pounds of basil that was destined to be turned into pesto. The produce was divided up around campus, some going to the commissary for the dining halls to use, some to catering and to the Green Tidings food truck that makes stops around campus. Also benefitting was the campus food pantry that assists those facing food shortages.
The idea for Terp Farm originated with the university’s sustainability committee when a goal was established to have 20 percent of the food prepared on campus being sustainable. “One thing the committee kept coming back to was students growing some of the food,” said Lilly. Community gardens—including one on a rooftop—were already part of campus, but in order to grow the food needed to meet their goal, Terp Farm was the answer, financed with a $124,400 grant from the University’s sustainability fund.
Another important part to the program was to tie it in to the academic community, said Lilly.
Chris Walsh, professor of plant science and landscape architecture, is a cheerleader for Terp Farm, which “I use as my lab for fruit and vegetable technology. Before that, the only hands-on place was a greenhouse on campus.” His students are in the classroom from 11 a.m. until noon and then “they grab lunch and eat in the van” on their way to the farm where they work until 4 p.m. “We always have good discussions in the van,” he said. Some days it might be how the dwindling number of farmers is at the same time expected to feed more people and how there needs to be a balance to also protect the environment. Other times it could be chatter about how the crops are doing.
“Most of our majors grew up in Montgomery and Howard counties,” he said. “They’re suburban kids interested in farming and here they get the chance to see what it’s like on a small scale. “I’ve been here 35 years and this is one of the things that students have really responded positively to and I’m happy to be involved in it.”
It tastes so fresh
Standing in the middle of the field putting down straw between tomato plants to prevent weeds, Karyn Owens was spending another summer on the farm. She also had classes out here last fall and this spring. “I can’t get away from it,” she said with a laugh, but it’s clear she doesn’t want to. She could care less about having nice nails and the same thing goes for her hair. “Farming is definitely a passion,” said the plant science major who grew up in Calvert County “on a square acre next to what used to be our family farm.”
The pleasure of getting her hands dirty is something she’d like other students to experience, even if they’re not enrolled in an agriculture discipline. She’s hoping for more scheduled volunteer days when they can “plant with us, harvest with us.”
Owens pronounced the soil at Terp Farm as “a nice sandy loam” and mentioned that they use all-organic fertilizers. “The best part about farming is seeing the end results. I’m like a babysitter for the plants. Everyone keeps asking me what I’m going to do after graduation; ultimately I’d like to keep farming.”
In the meantime, there was weeding to attend to, as well as harvesting Swiss chard, cucumbers and peppers, among other crops. Planting can be a little tricky. “The issue for us is that we feed more students in the fall, so the crops have to come in at around that time which means we have to delay planting.” During the school year, 27,000 meals a day are served on campus.
“Our food is a small percentage of that, but we’d like to think the chefs are encouraged when they consider where their produce is coming from,” Owens said, admitting that “I’m a little biased about how fresh it tastes. I eat things out of the field when I’m working. It tastes so fresh.”
Read more of this article on page 3 of the latest issue of MomentUM magazine!
